Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Help After Hurricane Katrina

I've been wondering when help from the rest of the world would come pouring into the United States now that Katrina has devastated parts of 3 states, has flooded New Orleans and who knows what other cities, and has made refugees of hundreds of thousands of people.

I've asked all day: where are the concerts? Where are the offers of assistance from other countries? Where is the UN, especially after Jan Englund called us "stingy" during the tsunami crisis? Who is offering to help?

According to this FoxNews article, our erstwhile ally (ahem) Venezuela has offered to help, and individuals in Switzerland are asking how they can help.

The rest of the article mentions which countries have sent sympathies, and which countries/groups have somehow managed to criticize the US in the wake of the hurricane.

10 comments:

Anonymous
said...

"I've asked all day: where are the concerts? Where are the offers of assistance from other countries? Where is the UN, especially after Jan Englund called us "stingy" during the tsunami crisis? Who is offering to help?"

This only happened this week.

Have we asked for help?

You are jumping to conclusions and using this tragedy for polical gain awfully quick.

BTW, I fully expect that help from outside the US will be on the way. I was merely making the point that we were called stingy and slow during the tsunami response, even though the US Navy was first on the scene in many areas. Just making a point that what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

1) Jan didn't call the US stingy. He stated that nations have, in general, donated a smaller percentage of GDP to disaster relief the richer they have become, and referred to that as "stingy". The words "US" or "America" do not appear in his statement anywhere. He also said, as part of the same comment, that he thought populations of rich coutries *were* generous, and that the issue is that politicians in general are wary of making larger donations because they incorrectly think the electorate wouldn't tolerate. Just to repeat - he didn't call the US "stingy" - the US is not referred to in his remarks at all. He did refer to Holland, though.

2) According to the state department, "10 to 12" nations have offered assistance.